Posted
by
samzenpus
on Monday January 26, 2009 @02:47PM
from the stranger-than-fiction dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Wikipedia apparently wasn't enough. There had to be a course on the much needed subject of soap operas at MIT.
Here's the Course Description: "The television landscape has changed drastically in the past few years; nowhere is this more prevalent than in the American daytime serial drama, one of the oldest forms of television content. This class examines the history of these "soap operas" and their audiences by focusing on the production, consumption, and media texts of soaps. The class will include discussions of what makes soap operas a unique form, the history of the genre, current experimentation with transmedia storytelling, the online fan community, and comparisons between daytime dramas and primetime serials from 24 to Friday Night Lights, through a study of Procter & Gamble's As the World Turns."" All I really need to know I learned from my evil twin, who fathered my unborn child, who has a extremely rare disease that only one of my many CIA contacts, who is also sleeping with my wife, can cure.

Soap Operas are among the most damaging and destructive influences in our society today. I have witnessed first hand the pain and suffering they can wreak upon the people who watch them and those close to them. An unending visual diet of petty pickering, gross injustices, squabbling, two bit storylines and overblown melodrama can wear down the common sense of even the most stoic individual, turning them into a capricious, cantankerous, shrew with violent mood swings who starts flaming arguments at the slightest provocation.

I can say with surety that no child of mine will ever, ever be allowed to watch a soap opera of any kind. I would rather they were smoking crack. At least their are clinics for that.

Really though, this kind of class is really a sort of literature. Lots of people watch soap operas, probably more than watch western movies on a daily basis. Seems to me any genre of literature bears study.

I'd agree that any genre of literature is as worth of study as any other genre of literature. But I never could figure out what the point of studying literature was in the first place. It's fiction, how do I learn from stuff that never happened?

But you see, that Zebra storyteller could just as well have been thinking about a talking cat who is kind and generous to Zebras. It's not enough to just have stories, you have to have a reason to believe that the lessons in the stories have some application to the real world. I don't think there is any such reason. The fact that I can think up a story to illustrate a moral doesn't mean the moral is true.

But I never could figure out what the point of studying literature was in the first place. It's fiction, how do I learn from stuff that never happened?

Are you being serious?

The study of literature illuminates the society and culture that produced it. Take the soap operas - there is a reason those are made. Understanding them deepens our understanding of the world we live in.

Also, very little fiction is completely fictional. Almost all of it is based on real-world facts in some way. Look at Shakespeare. His fiction engages many political and historical topics, such as the War of the Roses and the fall of Julius Caesar. not only do you get an education of t

Take the soap operas - there is a reason those are made. Understanding them deepens our understanding of the world we live in.

I'm not sure why I'd want to know anything a Soap Opera has to tell me about this culture. There are too many gossipy housewives who need something better to do? I got it. I'm not clear what a deeper analysis would tell me.

Also, very little fiction is completely fictional. Almost all of it is based on real-world facts in some way. Look at Shakespeare. His fiction engages many poli

I can't imagine what your days must be like - how are your conversations and personal relationships - do you ever have a discussion that includes opinion rather than simply fact? Do you ever speculate? Do you ever discuss a movie or book with someone?

This whole "oh, it's just something made up by some guy" attitude of yours is kind of weird and scary.

I'd be interested in how the American soap operas compare to their counterparts in other countries. From what I've read, telenovelas are very popular in Latin America. When I lived in Hawaii, a local TV station used to play a Samurai soap opera series from Japan.

Could be worse, at least they're not watching soaps from the Philippines. Do yourself a favor and subscribe to any Pinoy channel on cable/dish networks, it's nothing but 24/7 soap operas (and as a bonus, usually in English instead of Tagalog!)

What is science fiction but the study of humanity? In that regard, good science fiction can't help but be dramatic. Does that make it a soap opera? Hardly. Soap operas are their own special, campy, beast.

I never *got* American soaps. They're far too escapist for me - basically just watching the rich and powerful play around and get in to trouble. Corrie and EastEnders (UK soaps) sure have their share of that a bit, but they're basically showing "working class" people most of the time. And the people tend to look more "average". Not everyone in UK soaps is a model - many look like 'regular' folk. I do say they all have perfect teeth tho.:/ All American soaps I've taken a look at (admittedly few in rec

And the people tend to look more "average". Not everyone in UK soaps is a model - many look like 'regular' folk.

.

For the same reason video game characters tend to be skewed towards looking like models(or pornstar/weightlifter). If you are going to be staring at someone's ass for a few hours a day, every day, wouldn't you rather they be attractive? Continue that thought until it is ridiculous.

Brit soaps are more like... US ensemble cast/not single family sitcoms than soaps.

One of the best professors I had a MIT was Thorburn, who taught a class in narrative. Some of the homework was going into his office and watching episodes of Harry O on a big new BetaMax (this was in 76-77). We spent a lot of time talking about TV and how the artist makes art within the boundaries of the medium, be it stage, movie, small screen, flat oil painting, sculpture, etc. I wrote a long paper about the differences between the musical scores of the movies Jaws and The Horror of Party Beach.

I was actually one of the six or so students taking the class. This class probably won't be offered again, and actually happened this time last year - it's only just got round to being put on OpenCourseWare.

You should check out our class blog at http://mitsoaps.wordpress.com/ - it's not active anymore, but it'll give you a better feel for what we're doing. To answer the question about where you draw the line - the answer is you don't. Obviously we have the US 'soaps', but something like Friday Night Lights is as much as soap as As The World Turns. Furthermore, the US may only show daily soaps during daytime, but plenty of countries (such as the UK) have soaps in prime-time and bringing in top 5 ratings.

Soap opera really boils down to episodic character based story. This means the genre really encompasses an awful lot of TV. It's basically any show which you watch for character development across time rather than a formulaic drama. A good test of whether a TV program is 'soap opera' or not is the syndication rule - if you can present episodes in a random order and the audience will still understand the majority of your program, it's leaning away from soaps.

Once you actually *watch* daytime soaps (and until I took this class, I hadn't), you realise there's actually not much difference at all between soaps and their prime-time counterparts. The fans are much the same, the shows elicit the same reactions and emotions - the only real difference is the sheer volume, suspect acting, and low-budgets.

Read a little more of the website, and you'll discover that MIT students are required to take 8 humanities classes while they're there, and that the humanities faculty includes Pulitzer Prize-winners and other notables. Strangely, even MIT doesn't think that giving someone only science or engineering classes will serve them well in the long run.

Oh! I didn't realize that you've taken this class and could comment on its quality.

Or are you saying that just because you're not interested in analyzing a particular genre, no one should be? Or perhaps that "mass-market" or "pop" genres aren't worth analyzing? Personally, I think that the more people there are consuming a given genre, the more worthy of analysis that makes it, because even if it's complete shit we should try especially hard to understand what kind of shit is going into people's heads.

So, I see it's all going as planned to plunge slashdot to its intellectual nadir in order to satisfy the corporate overlords.

Sweet mercy, what is the fucking problem? Oh noes!! Elite academic institution offers a film/tv/media studies course! How can this be happening??? Oh wait, this sort of thing has been perfectly normal for decades? Who knew? Apparently not the geniuses at slashdot.

In 1992, a Hong Kong soap opera The Greed of Man [wikipedia.org] caused a 10+% drop in the Hang Seng Index. Ever since, the stock market there drops whenever the star of that soap is in anything on TV, completing that probably self-fulfilling prophecy.